Recinded

Did you smell anything funky on Saturday (5/9)?

How to describe it? Perhaps a combination of neon hair dye chemicals, microwavable Beyond Meat nugs, apple tartz glacier canabis, SSRIs, faded tattoos, Covid booster shots, resentment, crassness, and Body Positivity?

You might have smelled these things because a swarm of leftists descended upon downtown Hillsdale to protest MAGA, Trump, Hillsdale College, TPUSA, and more. The whiff would have been most prominent in downtown Hillsdale, but also might have carried out to the countryside.

One could of course identify a few local leftists among the crowd, but also a number of not-so-recognizable ones who, it turned out, came from faraway places to let the citizens of Hillsdale know what they think.

I don’t know if the Hillsdalian reporter who covered the event was trying to be objective in not pointing out the ridiculousness of the fact that many of these medicated “protestors” weren’t from Hillsdale. Perhaps he was hoping that people would pick up on the ridiculousness thanks to his subtlety. Either way, the protestor he spoke to is from Tecumseh and is the President of the Lenawee County Democrats.

To see accounts from other reporters, you find that our filthy visitors came from as far as Macomb, Calhoun, Monroe, and Branch counties.

I made a quick stop at the protests myself. I’m not terribly sensitive to profanity, but even I was starting to get annoyed by the nonstop cussing: “Fuck Trump, Fuck Trump, Fuck Trump.”

In a way, I was almost tempted to feel bad for these people. They had clearly been plunged—or had plunged themselves—into “the antagonist world of madness, discord, vice, confusion, and unavailing sorrow.” But then whatever misguided sympathy might have been brewing for these warped souls was pushed aside when they started chanting, “Whose streets? OUR STREETS!”

Imagine the delusion of going into a small city of with a disproportionately number of veterans, hunters, and self-respecting red-blooded men who are armed to the teeth—and then telling them that you own their streets! You and your green-haired vaping buddies who watch a lot of Marvel movies and have never been to a gun range and don’t know how much a barbell weighs—you own these streets???!!!

As the kids say these days, lol lmao even.

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Another meeting of the Hillsdale County Board of Commissioners, with resolution on the LifeWays issue. Finally.

Resolution 26-054: RESOLUTION RECINDING [sic] RESOLUTION NO.25-095, WHICH AUTHORIZED A BALLOT PROPOSAL RELATED TO THE LIFEWAYS COMMUNITY HEALTH FACILITY BONDS

YEA: Leininger, Collins, Wiley

NAY: Benzing, Ingles

Benzing, offering a point of clarification for his surprising NAY vote:

• “I just simply want to state for the record I will be voting against this resolution because as it stands it is the only thing stopping this body from moving forward, that it has to go to the voters. If this motion is rescinded and the second resolution is not adopted, then this body could move forward because that notice of intent has been issued and so I will be voting no.”

  • In other words, he suspected shenanigans from the majority. Citizens for Hillsdale County shared these suspicions about how this might play out. From a post before the meeting: “The LifeWays bond issue isn’t over yet. On tomorrow’s BOC agenda are two motions, one would rescind the last July’s resolution putting the bond issue on the ballot and the second would rescind the Notice of Intent to issue the bond. It would be disastrous if the ballot vote was rescinded but not the notice of intent. Email your commissioner today asking him to rescind both, together. And consider showing up tomorrow to remind them that the people are STILL watching this.”

But Benzing’s worries proved needless—or so it seems. For the very next item that came up was:

Resolution 25-055: RESOLUTION RECINDING [sic] RESOLUTION NO. 25-077 RELATED TO THE NOTICE OF INTENT TO FINANCE LIFEWAYS COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY

YEA: Leininger, Ingles, Collins, Wiley, Benzing

Public comment—

The recently-vindicated Stephanie Scott:

• “What I’m here today for is to share with you … that I did file a complaint with the Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday, the day of the election. The Fayette Township election was in violation of the law. The fact that the Litchfield City Clerk ran [an election in a different township] is in violation of MCL 168373. It’s nothing new for this county because Abe Dane did it three times to Adams Township … Yes, you guys are the legislative branch. You have control over the checkbook, and that’s exactly what gives you the duty and authority to question Mr Abe Dane as our County Clerk. He’s a county officer on the taxpayer dime and he’s running illegal elections in this county.”

Lawrence Peter:

• “It’s been a long and winding road with regard to the LifeWays decision, but doing the right thing is the right thing to do and I want to thank each of you for doing the right thing today with your votes.”

James Thomas:

• “I noticed that we’re kind of struggling with parks money. And, I mean, not to beat a dead horse, but $115K on an architect and we’re quibbling on money for a park that every single person in the community loves and enjoys. That seems bass-ackwards, as my dad would say.”